Monday, September 13, 2004

It's only castles burning

Today I spent 20 mins listening to a colleague moan about his career. This career is a vocation, you either have the skills it requires or you don't. I grant you, it's not always easy but at the point at which you have been moaning about doing it everyday for 5 years it's time to start thinking about a change.

It's so fucking easy to let everyday shit get you down. It should take something like the school seige in russia or the humanitarian crisis in sudan to put things into persepective for us, indeed people say "doesn't it make you realise how lucky we are" or "well tonight thank god it's them, instead of you". but it's all just bluster and platitude. people go straight back to feeling sorry for themselves and their trivial concerns. does it actually matter, in the scheme of things, if you haven't photocopied enough sheets or if you failed to complete some waste of time review form that will tell you what you already know. does it matter that the dishes are left dirty in the sink overnight or that the neighbours may see your pants hanging on the radiator in the hallway or heaven forfend...that somone from the eastern bloc may be living next door to you (well i'll give you that one)....no, yet these are genuine concerns for some people, these cause genuine distress and anxiety. it's a shame that they do, but the fact remains, they do.

I have a friend who, no matter how little sleep I have had she has had less, no matter how many hours I have worked, she has worked more and I always think...well that's as maybe love but we're talking about me here...wait your turn. So I'm not suggesting that we have no right to express our sadness or disatisfaction because there will always be someone worse off than you, but surely there is a balance to be struck.....surely there are some things that could drop off the list of things to worry about. maybe it's time we did start to reflect on how lucky we are insteaad of simply just saying it.